stockwatch tonight Taking a pause from year-end reporting -- if only because this company already released its reports last month -- Don Gray's Gear Energy Inc. (GXE) added two cents to 67 cents on 1.44 million shares. It is getting a new chief executive officer. Ingram Gillmore, who has served as president and CEO for the last 14 years, is retiring.
Mr. Gillmore and the above Mr. Gray, Gear's chairman, started the company in 2010. They were aiming for a repeat of Mr. Gray's prior promotion, the gassy Peyto Exploration & Development Corp. (PEY: $14.74), except with a focus on heavy oil instead of gas. Gear rode the oil boom to make its public debut at $3 in 2013 and then double to $6.14 by mid-2014. The boom came to an abrupt end in late 2014, however, and although Gear was able to stay financially healthier than many of its competitors, its stock has spent most of the subsequent years below $1, even touching a low of just eight cents during the COVID downturn of 2020. It has never again reached its debut price of $3. Thinking a suitor might be the answer, Gear hung out the for-sale in 2023, but took it down last month and sniffed that the proposals "were not reflective of the company's underlying value." Today the stock is trading at 67 cents. This is perhaps not the high note that Mr. Gillmore would have wished to go out on, but he has undoubtedly earned a relaxing retirement.
Succeeding Mr. Gillmore as Gear's president and CEO is Kevin Johnson, most recently of the private-equity-backed Artis Exploration, an Alberta Duvernay producer. He was its vice-president of engineering. Before that, he worked for the above Vermilion, and before that he was at Kereco Energy and Ketch Resources (both sold by Grant Fagerheim and his people prior to their current promotion of Whitecap Resources Inc. (WCP: $9.63)). This appears to be Mr. Johnson's first time in charge of a company. Gear's Mr. Gray welcomed him and his "experience and vision to set Gear on a new, exciting path forward" -- no pressure.